Minutes for 8/29/08 By Chris Luczkowiak

- Welcome to our new classmate, Svetlana!

- Rough drafts of our grade contracts were due by 5:00pm 8/29/08

o Students may want to steer away from essay-style writing in
their grade contracts, and instead make sure that key pieces of info
are easily accessible, including desired grade and attendance/
participation

- Class is canceled for Wednesday, Sept. 3

- Students should make arrangements for their interviews with a
professional by Wednesday, Sept. 3

o “Professionals” include people being paid for the work they
are doing (i.e., Professors, T.A.’s)

o Interview should last for about 15 minutes

o The focus of the interview should be around the question “how
do people in your community communicate?”

- Extrapolating from the quiz recently posted on the blog, we
determined that…

o People often possess a fear of not looking professional

o There are many ways to combat writer’s block, including
thinking about another subject, walking away and doing something
else, and blast drafting

o Blast draft (also known as freewriting) is the process of
writing anything that comes to mind without worrying about spelling,
grammar, context, etc.

o Your writing may be polished by cutting the fat (removing
unnecessary, “filler” content) which often results from straying off
topic or using boring or repetitive works, phrases, or structures

o One key maneuver to make your writing less repetitive and more
polished is to lessen your dependence on subject-linking verb forms
of “is”

- As ESF students we should know the speeds of light and
sound. Look them up!


Present for the day’s class: Don, Chris L., Yumie, Alyssa, Megan C.,
Owen, Josh, Chris D., Bobby, Dan, Julienne, Megan T., Nicole,
Svetlana, Amanda, Ben, Sarah, James